Burning questions and soothing answers
In the world of Ifa-Orisha many questions are asked, and quite a lot of them are never answered - even after "the Religion" has kind of entered the mainstream, there's still a lot of secrecy, especially when it comes to anything that might even remotely be considered a "hot" issue. In this "Questions and Answers" section we have a different approach: if we know the answer, we will most of the time give it. Not always, though: there are issues I won't speak about, because knowing the answers in advance would spoil your fun. So in the end... there are some secrets!
If you have a burning question, or even a slowly simmering one, please use the Contact Form in order to ask it. We probably won't answer immediately - although it doesn't look like that always, we do have a life. Sort of... (wide grin)!
Here comes the present lot of questions:
 | I heard that women can't be initiated into Ifa because they are not allowed to see Odu. What does this mean? |
The issue of women not being allowed to see Odu is severely clouded by lack of knowledge of the Yoruba language, and lack of knowledge of the various paraphernalia of the Ifa diviners. Odu, as in the prohibition "women can't see Odu", does not refer to the patterns cast with either Opele or Ikin, but to the container called "Odu" that contains mud, charcoal, chalk and red camwood.
Indeed a woman is not allowed to see this container, definitely not the inside and probably also not the outside. There's a good reason for this. The Odu (container) is completely saturated with female energies, that might literally produce an "overkill" if it is added to the already existing female energies of any woman that happens to gaze upon it. It would be the end of the (female) Iyanifa, she would start leaking oestrogene at the seems...! For a (male) Babalawo however, contact with Odu (container) serves a very good purpose: counterbalancing his inherent male energies with the female energies of the Odu (container).
The initiation of a Babalawo and an Iyanifa (or Iyalawo - depends on what area of Nigeria you're from) are partly different: part of the Babalawo initiation is set up as to "feed" the initiate some female energies, to balance his existing male energies. This would be counterproductive to a woman, and would give no balance at all, but would put her inner scale even more out of balance. Instead Iyalawo initiations contain an infuse of male energies that would be overkill for men. BALANCE is SOOOO important! So in this particular aspect the initiations for men and women indeed are different! But for all practical purposes that's the only difference.
The female Ifa priest is perfectly able to see Odu (Signs of the oracle) and interpret Ese Odu (Ifa texts). The prohibition has nothing to do with these; only with the other meaning of Odu: the Container. The only reason this issue keeps cropping up, is because of a lack of knowledge of the various homonyms "Odu". It's just like many words in the English language, that although looking and sounding the same, may indicate totally different things. As a totally random example take the English word "plane". This may mean several things, like a flat surface, an aircraft, or a tree. When someboy says: "You may not fly my plane", it would be silly to surmise that one is not allowed to take to the air in a tree. Just like that, the Yoruba word "Odu" means several things. It is good to be aware of that, in order not to draw and perpetuate incorrect conclusions.
| Can I initiate myself into Ifa-Orisha? |
In the Ifa-Orisha religions it's generally accepted that "self initiation" is our of the question: priests are needed in order to transfer the Ashe of the Orisha to the Head (Ori) of the initiate. The common stance on the subject is: "Self initiation is not possible". But is it? Isn't it? Could it be...? The words "this is not possible" are invariably uttered by those who either tried and failed, or never even tried at all. I myself belong to the latter category (I never tried at all), which makes me just about the least qualified person to make a sweeping statement like "It is impossible". For I simply dunno: I never gave it a try, nor do I know anybody who did.
Since in any Ifa-Orisha-oriented initiation process we are to an incredible extend dependant on the willingness or non-willingness to cooperate of a deity (a higher being: the Orisha), it seems fair to say that it's the ORISHA that determines whether an initiation becomes succesful or not. In saying this, I presume that Orisha's have a will of their own, for if they haven't... our Religion ceases to be a religion, on account of it being rather "non-religious" to worship a deity that doesn't even have its own will. What is the alleged and desired result of initiation? The alleged and desired result of initiation is receiving the Ashe of the Orisha in question. Nothing less, nothing more. Now by saying "self-initiation is impossible", one seems to presume that an Orisha is incapable of giving its own Ashe to a human being without another human being (the priest) going through "the ritual motions". In this perspective the Orisha is simply a force of nature that can be manipulated like we manipulate other forces of nature, like electricity. To safely deal with electricity, one needs a qualified electrician ("electricity manipulator")... and to safely deal with an orisha (no need anymore to use a capital letter O) one needs a qualified olorisha ("orisha manipulator"). So yes: if an orisha is simply a mindles power, one needs to be initiated by a qualified priest in order to prevent that mindless power to mindlessly blow you up. In that case I would consider self-initiation close to (possibly even completely) impossible, for if you don't know Ohm's Law (U = I*R) you'll blow just about every fuse there is, and quite likely kill yourself in the process. But: how many people do we know that have killed themselves trying to self-initiate? I've heard many horror stories about priests putting the "wrong" Orisha on a persons head, whith terrible, sometimes deadly, results for the initiate. If there are similar horror stories about people buggering up their self-initiation, I would like to be informed of them, for right now the lack of such histories seems to indicate that more "official" initiations are botched up and result in snuffing the initiate, than "self-initiations" tend to do. Now for the flipside of the coin. Let's presume (like I tend to do) that Orishas are not mindless powers of nature, but conscious "Deities", "Spirits" or "Higher Beings". In that case Ifa/Orisha is a RELIGION, where said Deities are not manipulated but actually worshipped. Initiation into such a Deity then seems to be a choice and an act of will of the Deity itself, where the performing priest is not the manipulator of a mindless force of nature, but the humble servant of a conscious and powerful Deity. It is a matter of arrogance then, if the serving priest says: "Only when I am present and doing my job, can the Orisha give its Ashe to the initiate". Such an opinion would make the Orisha dependant on the priest, instead of the other way around. The Orisha would then be a "lower" being than the priest, and subsequently the religion would cease to be a religion, like I stated earlier. When one maintains that the Ifa/Orisha complex indeed IS a religion dealing with conscious Deities that are above their worshippers and priests, then there is no theological reason why an Orisha would not (be able to) allow and help a person to self-initiate. For by its very nature, in a RELIGION it's the DEITY that calls the shots. In short: I am not prepared to totally exclude the possibility of self-initiation into the Ashe of an Orisha. I believe it's up to the Orisha to decide whether, in any individual case, the person can or can't. Do I think (an attempted) self-initiation is worth the trouble? I dunno. I don't think I ever met a person who tried and succeeded, nor did I ever met any person who tried and failed. I've only met people why never tried at all, and for some odd reason they seem to consider themselves fully qualified to state that "it's impossible". Would I myself go through the trouble of an (attempted) self-initiation? No, I don't think so; I'm quite happy with the way my Babatobi performed mine. And to be totally honest: if I ever would attempt a self-initiation and I would actually succeed, I would never tell anybody. For I would be a person who tried and succeeded, and these are never believed by those who either tried and failed, or never even tried at all.
What you ask is exactly what I believe happens. Say you revere among your Ancestors the spirit of your grandfather. That spirit (let's call it an Egun), has and keeps its own validity regardless of Grampaw in the meantime having been reborn or not. Without this position the whole idea of Ancestor reverence would be nonsense, because on account of reincarnation there wouldn't be anybody present in "ancestor land" to revere!
In fact the whole concept of reincarnation is a bit more complex than the simple idea of: person dies, gets reborn, dies, gets reborn etcetera. That would be a very fragmented way of looking at reality, while a somewhat more holistic and non-linear approach also takes into account that a person has "parallel selves" (lousy description, but I can't think of a better word), and many other connections with present or past individuals that cannot be directly contributed to reincarnation of one particuluar individual.
In a way everybody now alive has once lived as everybody before us. The fact that your daughter in this physical life is your reincarnated Grandfather, does not invalidate the spirit of your Grandfather as an Ancestor. They're simply different aspects of something "bigger". What exactly is this "something bigger"...? Well, if I knew I would explain it to you. But I have no absolute knowledge or even absolute opinions on this. I just find the idea of a soul being able to be "both" instead of "either/or", in other words Gramps can be both an Ancestor and a newborn baby, an extremely effective working hypothesis. In fact for me it's more than just that... it's part of my accepted reality.
| In Lukumi/Santeria the Orisha Olofi is very prominent, but in Nigeria he isn't. How come? |
Ah, that Olofi guy! Some Santeros say that he's even part of a "Trinity": Olodumare, Olorun and Olofi. Elevated out of every decent proportion he is, from a relatively obscure sun-spirit (just one among dozens of more or less related sprigs and sprites) in the odd region in Africa, to a fully-fledged trinity position in the "Creator cluster" in Cuba/America! Not a bad career at all, and fine proof that heresy works (wide and wicked grin)!
The basic principle of any good heresy (like the well-known example of Akhnaton with his spectacular Aton experiment) is to pick a relatively insignificant but clearly legitimate deity, and then slowly and carefully attribute to him/her an increasing number ofqualities and characteristics that formerly belonged to other deities. The original relative obscurity is a definite prerequisite, because it makes it very hard for opponents of the new Savior, Messiah, top-Orisha or Creator-God to prove that the newly attributed qualities are not originally connected with the newly appointed Spiritual Marvel... for nobody knows.
In fact this same process has happened hundreds of times in traditional African Ifa-Orisha. In contrast with common belief, the immense variety of expressions of Ifa-Orisha in Africa is firmly based on thorough heresy, the busy worshippers constantly making, merging and destroying Orishas. Some newly made or recently elevated Orishas enjoy a splendid career, while others simply fail and in a very literal sense disappear.
Although cosmic forces and elements of nature exist quite independently from us, when it comes tho their worshipped expressions or aspects, it is man who makes, merges, proliferates and destroys Orishas. In Africa mankind traditionally makes and changes their own gods, and it pleases me to see that this time-honored tradition of institutional heresy has survived in the Santeria/Lukumi branch in Cuba and the United States. Lukumi is a fine heretical tradition, quite well in line with the ancient African practices of growth and development it was born from. It's not the heresy that I object to in Lukumi, but its unwillingness to admit that it's a heretical religion in boiling and creative turmoil.
Olofi in his present day Lukumi perspective is a legitimate Orisha in his own right, but boy oh boy: if ever in recent days an Orisha was literally made by man, then it's him!
| Some Orishas didn't make it to the New world; does this mean that they are "dead" there? Others have lost their worshipppers, like Orunmila in Brazil, where he isn't so big anymore. Is he "dead"? |
That's in interesting question you pose, for the answer would be both "yes" and "no". The Yoruba deities, to a very large extend, are man-made. In this they are not different from f'rinstance Jesus who is almost entirely fantasized into being by Christians and who would be completely unrecognizable to his mom who in turn got her own "working over" by the Church and also became a product of fantasy. Several authors have elaborated on this matter in the Yoruba religion, Karin Barber being one of the better-known among them.Although the forces of nature that are revered in our religion are quite independent from us, their representations that we call "Orisha" are figments of our own imagination and creativity. Attributes and characteristics of Orishas are freely exchanged depending on whom you worship and where you live, and the "same" Orisha may be rather different to worshippers living in different countries or even villages. Orishas have come and gone at an incredible rate. They proliferated, merged and disappeared to their worshippers' needs and heart's desire. It's only relatively recently that new Orishas don't spring up a dime a dozen; travel, communication and last but not least the printing press have more or less stabilized the present crowd. If anything, there are more Orishas "going" than "coming" now. An Orisha that is not worshipped, "dies". The forces of nature don't die, but the particular image they once were given by humans, fades out of existence. In traditional African terms an Orisha can be compared to a "Great Man": he's only great when he has followers. Without followers no Great Man comes into being, and when an existing Great Man looses his crowd he ceases to be great. He eventually dies as a small man, and will not be remembered. Many Orishas have died "small", and are not remembered. Let's take Orunmila, who indeed doesn't have a prominent place in Brazil, a country that kinda "disposed" with his priests some decades ago. This doesn't mean though that Orunmila in any GENERAL sense is "dead", for he has worshippers in many other places in the world. Yet in those places where he is not worshipped, in a sense he could indeed be considered "dead". I wouldn't go that far myself, for if even one worshipper remains, there's SOME life left in his anemic Orisha, but I guess you understand the essence of what I'm saying. Interesting about Orunmila is that he isn't necessary or even indigenous to Ifa at all. Most African peoples and ethnicities who use the divination system called Ifa, Fa, Eva, Eba and such, have never even heard of him. Quite likely his name is simply a mispronounciation of the Arab "ErRaml", and poor old Orunmila can't date back earlier than when Arabs and Yorubas began to exchange divinatory techniques. That doesn't make him "fake" though: Orunmila is alive and well in the minds, rituals and divinations of his worshippers, which is all that counts. But we should always bear in mind that ninety percent of everything is bullshit, and in this sense Orunmila is no exeption: most Ifa, Fa, Eba etcetera priests, with the almost sole exception of the Yoruba-derived ones, divine thoroughly and happily without him. In our own branches (the Yoruba-based ones) of African religions, "Ifa" has been reduced to the "Orunmila system", and we find it hard to realize that he's just a local Yoruba thing. The vast majority of Ifa priests are not babalawos, i.e. guys initiated into "Orunmila": they are diviners that do not worship or even know Orunmila, and may or may not have another tutelary deity for their divination system. You don't have to go far away from "Yorubaland" to realize how limited our concept of Ifa/Orunmila is. To the many Fa diviners and their clients in Benin f'rinstance, the whole hullabaloo around Babalawos and Orunmila simply doesn't exist, and also in other African countries outside "Yorubaland" he is simply unknown, and does not play ANY rol at all in their divination systems. The Orisha Orunmila was man-made, and the vast majority of Ifa priests are not among those who "made" him. So not only is he "dead" to them: he actually never existed. I myself am not initiated into Orunmila and yet I'm a bloody good Ifa priest and diviner - if I may be so bold as to do a little bit of self-praising (wicked grin)! I am in good company: it's my rather educated guess that at least three quarters of all Ifa, Fa, Eba etcetera diviners are not intiated into Orunmila, nor do they feel the need to, for to them Orunmila is not an existing deity.
| Do I have to sacrifice animals to practice Orisha traditions? |
That's a pretty sore spot when it comes to discussing our religion with "outsiders" Time upon time again we have to defend our position on this subject, for yes: although probably not absolutely necessary, you'll hardly find an Ifa-Orisha, Santeria or Lukumi House that does not sacrifice animals, either frequently or not so frequently.
My own experience is that ritually snuffing the odd chicken or such raises an enormous amount of Ashe, that would be rather difficult to raise otherwise. Yet I don't do it very often, for the simple reason that, when I divine on the subject, my Orishas hardly ever ask for blood sacrifice. Their tastes seem to change, or rather adapt to the culture and circumstances one lives in.
In Africa it was, and to a large extend still is, customary to slaughter ones own food, and the blood and some parts were more or less automatically offered to the Orishas. That means meals for humans and for Orishas were kind of "integrated": when the humans ate, the Orishas ate too. In the West this has been turned inside out: an animal is sacrifed to the Orishas, and almost as a second thought the meat is eaten by the human family. In Africa on the other hand, an Orisha asking for a blood offering was part of normal kitchen procedure: the family had to eat anyway, and if there was any good reason to slaughter an animal and eat meat, this was reason for enjoyment and for stuffing ones face with relatively rare delicacies.
We, in the West, don't eat that way. Slaughtering an animal is out of place here, instead of the "normal" thing to do. Which might indicate that making a blood offering too has ceased to be the "normal" thing. There's another side to this issue as well. Until not so long ago, at least deep into the nineteenth century and quite likely even into the twentieth, human sacrifice was not unheard of in the religion, and earlier it was even fairly common - in the mid-nineteenth human sacrifices were still often made in the Yoruba Ifa-Orisha tradition.
However, this changed somewhere in time. There are many texts in the Ifa Corpus that say: "And from that moment on no humans were sacrificed anymore to Orisha So-and-so, but only pigs. Or goats. Or whatever". So human sacrifice, once considered an indispensable part of our religion, kinda went out of fashion when public opinion began to frown upon it on account of cultural ideas and customs changeing. I have the feeling that something similar may eventually happen to animal sacrifice.
It seems quite possible that divination will increasingly indicate that animal sacrifices are no longer required, on account of ritual slaughter being so much out of place in our cultures that it has become a very artificial act and even "unnatural". Orishas are not fond of "unnatural" things. They disposed of human sacrifice, and every worshipper goes happily along with that. The time may come when they dispose of animal sacrifice too. I dunno; I'm not an Orisha.
Right now I would say that many ritual sacrifices need not to be done, but I won't go as far as to say that NONE of them should be done. In other words: when the Orishas tell me that they accept something else, I'm not going to snuff a rooster just because that would be the "traditional thing". But when in exceptional circumstances they insist on having a rooster or so, I'll snuff the beast without any qualms.
My personal perception is that animal sacrifice is kind of on the wane, and mainly propagandized by those who haven't yet found out that there are changes all around us. I for one wouldn't be unhappy to see it go completely in any culture where one wouldn't normally slaughter ones own food anyway. But I guess it's up to the Orishas to decide.
| I am on the shortlist to be initiated, but there are three Orishas fighting for my head: Oshun, Yemoja and Oya. In which of them should I be initiated? |
I'd say in none of them. If they can't even sort out their differences among themselves, none of the sorry bunch would be any good to you (wide and wicked grin)! How on earth can you expect anything from such a bickering crowd? Of course there's more to the issue than the above irreverend remarks. Contrary to common Western belief, Orishas do not "fight" for your head. Geez, they are forces of nature, and your tiny little bonce isn't even remotely important enough for these cosmic forces to fight over!
The whole idea of "Head Orisha" or even "Guardian Angel" (yuck!) is vastly overrated in the New World; it's a relatively modern invention. In Africa whole villages were (and sometimes still are) dedicated to one single Orisha, and initiations almost automatically took place into that local Orisha. No divination at all about "what Orisha" to be initiated into; the question in for instance a Shango village simply was: "Should this person be initiated like everybody else into Shango?" If the answer was "no", no initiaton took place, and if the answer was "yes" the initiation into Shango became a fact. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Western confusion about this matter results from lack of knowledge about the way the Religion worked/works in Africa. Not only is initiation not desperately sought after like in Cuba and the United States, but also the worshipper has a relatively great freedom to shift allegiance from one Orisha to the other. If Shango fails to "deliver the goods", his worshipper is totally free to give let's say Oshoosi a try. And when Oshoosi happens to deliver the goods instead, he has won a worshipper and Shango has lost one. This takes place regardless of whoever might be the worshippers "Head Orisha".
The Yorubas are a very pragmatic people, and they want RESULTS. That's what their religion is for. It is NOT traditional in the religion to desperately seek initiation, on the contrary: most try to desperately AVOID it, on account of initiation bringing lots of unwanted responsibilities towards the community and costing a packet to boot!
As for your "fighting" Orishas Oshun, Yemoja and Oya: which of the three "delivers the goods" to you? Which one do you WANT to be initiated into? Or is it any other Orisha that brings you the most benefit? Figure all this out for yourself, and when you've found the Orisha that you have the best connection with, only THEN ask if you should be initiated into him/her. If the answer is "no", just sigh with relief for it relieves you from becoming yet another "chief with no indians", and if the answer is "yes"... well... you may act accordingly.
| Is it possible to cast a spell on people so they die, even unborn children in the womb? |
I wouldn't worry to much about this kind of thing. Although it is quite possible to do something like that, those abusers of the religion who are stupid enough to try, as a rule of thumb are also stupid enough to fail.
This basic truth having been said, I guess you'd like some more concrete info. Well... those practioners that indiscriminately "cast spells" on people, exhibit a nasty show of bad character. Now bad character, simply by its very existence, tends to mess up ones effectiveness in life and work. This is what I mean by saying that those stupid enough to try, are more often than not stupid enough to fail.
Another fact is, that the human body and mind are naturally protected. Just like the skin keeps out most infections, and antibodies take care of the nasties that got in anyway, our spiritual selves have their own protections. This is an unconscious process, that you don't have to think about: it just happens. Rarely such a spell works: if they did, there wouldn't be a human being alive on this world, for the creeps and weirdos would exploit their sorry capabilities to the fullest!
In individual cases however, a spell or curse MIGHT work. But if something nasty is happening to you, look for PHYSICAL causes first instead of METAphysical ones. In 999 cases out of every 1000 there's a "natural" cause for (even deadly) illnesses, that should be dealt with by doctors. In the odd case that nothing physical can be found, you MIGHT go see a diviner. But before you do so, review your own life, beliefs and ideas. For more often than not, the ONLY spells that can hurt us, are the ones we cast on ourselves.
| Do I have to pray to the Orishas in Yoruba? |
Not at all, for various reasons - the first being: WHAT Yoruba? Egba? Oyo? Egbado? Ife? Ijesa? Edo? Ketu? There are dozens more, and all of them are different. Even nowadays "standard" Yoruba is a misnomer: there are two different "standards": Oyo and Lagos. And for the "ancient, archaic" Yoruba: see above! There are just about as many ancient archaic versions of "Yoruba" as there are different peoples and tribes in the "Yoruba cluster".
The second and main reason why it is not necessary at all to pray to the Orishas in whatever kind of Yoruba, is that it would be a VERY dumb Force of Nature indeed who is limited to one language only, and a human one to boot! Orishas are not people, they are cosmic forces that couldn't care less which of the 30,000 or so languages on earth is used to address them. It is much more the force and the conviction of your prayer that makes it work, and this force and conviction should be evident to YOU!
Long time ago I used to do a lot of prayers and invocations in Yoruba, and only occasionally I switched over to my native Dutch. At one of these occasions a coupla Nigerian Yoruba friends were present in order to assist me, and they politely said: "Uncle Jaap, when you pray in 'Yoruba' we hardly understand what you're saying, so badly mispronounced it is. You mean well, but it sounds silly, especially since you do not know EXACTLY what the words and the idioms mean. When you pray in Dutch however, the force of your prayers and invocations immediately increases and becomes much more effective, because you know exactly what you're saying and why you're saying it. When you invoke in Yoruba we smile, but when you invoke in Dutch (even if we don't understand a word!) we literally get goose pimples from the force of your invocation, and the presence of the Orisha is immediately felt. So, Uncle Jaap: if you want to raise a mighty amount of Ashe, just pray and invoke in Dutch. Simply forget the ritual gibberish, and get the job done in your native lingo".
Well friends, I've heeded their advice ever since, and my communication with the Orishas has never left anything to be desired. So: use whatever language makes your invocations and prayers the most forceful, and more often than not that will be your own language.
| What do the five basic patterns in divination with "Obi" or four cowrie shells mean? |
First things first. "Obi" in the New World traditions is a misnomer. "Obi" in Yoruba means kolanut (like in obi abata), and has nothing to do with the coconut which is "agbon" in Yoruba. This having been said, let's go to the five patterns which are the same for "Obi" divination and four cowrie divination.
When I write "mouth" I mean the white side with Obi and the little "slit" with cowries; when I write "belly" I mean the dark brown side with Obi and the bulbous side (often broken away to form a relatively large opening) with cowries.
4 mouths, no bellies: "Alafia", meaning "yes with a blessing";
1 mouth, 3 bellies: "Okanran", meaning "no, but...";
2 mouths, 2 bellies: "Ejife", meaning "yes, definitely";
3 mouths, 1 belly: "Etawa", meaning "yes, but...";
no mouth, 4 bellies: "Oyeku", meaning "no, absolutely not".
These interpretations are not written in stone, but they will serve the beginner well. When you progress on the divination path, there's a fair chance that you will discover that "Oyeku" does not really mean "no", but is an indication that the Egun (Ancestors) want to speak on the matter. But that's "advanced stuff"; beginners do well to stick to the above interpretations.
| Who can/can't divine with the Obi or Four Cowries? |
The short answer is: everybody can! There is no person in this world who doesn't have the birthright to communicate with (at least!) ones own ancestors through four pieces of coconut, lobes of obi abata, cowries, or for all I care trouser buttons. It does not matter whether one is initiated or not, you don't need anybody's permission to cast the cowries (let's keep these as an example) in order to ask the Egun or Ancestors questions. It's simply none of anybody else's business, whether they be Olorisha, Babalawo, your Padrino or Madrina, or the President of the United States.
Slightly different is whether the non-initiated can also cast cowries or obi to the Orishas. Out of my own experience I say: yes, by all means! Remember, I was among the non-initiated for a long time before I went through Igbodu! However, one should be slightly cautious here, in order not to try to go too far too quickly. But there is nothing to REALLY worry about: the more you cast, the more the "system" will begin explaining and talking about itself. You'll encounter the occasional pitfall of course, but common sense will get you a long way!
Never, never at all, believe any priest who tells you that only THEY should divine for you, instead of you divining for yourself. In West Africa I have seen both the initiated and the non-initiated cast cowries, pods, EVEN THE PROVERBIAL TROUSER BUTTONS, with great proficiency and success. Initiation is not such a big issue in Africa, it was only in the New World that the "initiation craze" developed, with the sad result that the non-initiates became second rate worshippers. Not so in Africa. More often than not initiation is deliberately avoided there, on account of it resulting in heavy responsibilities towards the community, and costing a bundle to boot!
Yet all and sundry cast "things" over there, which is the way it should be. It's like picking up a phone: you don't have to be initiated to do that, just got to know how to handle the thing. And if you don't know, simply ask the operator which buttons to punch. Elsewhere in this section of our website you'll find the basic patterns or Four Cowries or Obi divinations. These are the basic "buttons to punch", and the rest will develop through experience.
| African Traditional Religions seem to be connected very much with the concept of the extended family. Is for example Ifa-Orisha all about family? |
It's often said (and to a certain extend correctly) that the Ifa-Orisha religions, from Africa to Santeria, Lukumi and Candomblé, are all about "family" and "community"... everything centers around it, and under no circumstances should this aspect be removed from it. I hold a more nuanced view of the subject, which I will explain from my own position as a Dutchman, inhabitiant of one of the smallest countries in the world: The Netherlands. Are "we Dutch" looking for an extended family, for a community, for a group? I guess not... Most of us here would love to leave parts of our damn claustrofobic family life behind us (grin)! Nobody in my country lives more than three hours driving away from parents, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and in-laws.
Exactly five minutes walking (even with my bad legs) away from my house lives a cousin with his wife. Three minutes walking the other way lives another cousin. Ten minutes driving from here (in different directions) live five other cousins, a bunch of nephews and nieces, and an aunt. My sister lives less than half an hour driving from here. My fathers only surviving brother lives less than an hour and a half from here. About ten minutes walking from my house is the local cemetary, where my grandparents are buried and about a dozen other relatives. My parents are buried less than half an hour from my house. My great-grandparents are buried about an hour driving from here. Another thirty minutes and I visit the graves of earlier generations, my folks from the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Then we go back to Ede where I live, taking an hours detour to visit the graves of my 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th century ancestors. When I finally arrive home, half of my living family is waiting on the doorstep inquiring where the hell I have been: didn't I remember that they had announced their visit? Heeeelp! LESS family please, not MORE! And to top it off, we Dutch are in the habit (possibly retained from our distant African ancestors) of teaching our children to call adult neighbors and adult family friends: "auntie" or "uncle"...
God help us, there's nothing BUT family here! The whole of this minute country of Holland functions and behaves like a traditional African village. Decades ago I couldn't, and my children to a certain extend still can't, put a bloody foot wrong without some "uncle" or "auntie" (either by blood or by "honorary title") calling the brat to order or walloping an ear. Well, you won't hear me complain: at least my wife Caroline and I don't have to raise them all by ourselves! And if Caroline and I are both away when dinner time is coming up, there's always somebody along our road where they can, and do, succesfully invite themselves to dinner. So: it does have its advantages, but puhrleeese: no MORE family! Although modern influences tend to diminish the old ways, this whole country is still far too bloody much like a traditional village, far too much for comfort!
I don't think that the RELIGION is all about family and community: the African CULTURE is. And so, God help us, is the Dutch. When my American Babatobi was in the Netherlands for my initiation, he was quite surprised that I took him to meet my parents (they were both still alive then): none of his other omo's had ever done that. I, on the other hand, considered it a normal thing, and my parents would have been kind of insulted if I hadn't. Then Baba invited my (very Christian!) mother to the feast (bembe) after the initiation, and he almost came in his spiritual pants of pure excitement when indeed she showed up (as did my mother-in-law)! His religious orgasm was complete when, after I had in good African tradition asked my mother for her blessings, she blessed me, raised me up and congratulated me on my initiation. Having a staunchly Christian woman partake in an Ifa-Orisha bembe and giving her "heathen" son her blessing, was something he never thought he would encounter!
Well, I dunno about others, especially when they're living in other countries. But for myself here in Holland, I never encountered any shortage of family life and/or religious support. On the contrary: we're a bloody African village here, and it's claustrofobic as hell. What we need is more divorces, more disfunctional families, and longer distances. Without all that, there's no escape from the chains and shackles of family life.
